In another extract from Leicester City star Jamie Vardy’s new autobiography, the 29-year-old has looked back at one of the biggest regrets in his life.
The 29-year-old was embroiled in a huge racism storm last year, after using the word ‘Jap’ in a casino, and unsurprisingly it led to plenty of scrutiny and criticism.
While Vardy has insisted that he is able to take most of the stick he receives on the chin, but one thing that he will not accept is being called a racist and it was merely an ignorant moment of stupidity.
The Leicester forward has discussed how difficult it has been to shed the tag, but concedes that it will likely stick with him forever.
“Most convictions get wiped after a period of time. But there’s no way of erasing what happened in July 2015,” he says in his book, as revealed by The Sun.
“The word ‘racist’ is a permanent stain against my name. It’s worse than a criminal record. Some people will never forgive me. Others will accept I made a terrible mistake and recognise I have learnt from it.
“It’s on YouTube when my kids type in their dad’s name and it comes up ‘Jamie Vardy racist’. On Google, too. It’s horrible.”
Vardy goes on to admit that he likes a drink now and again and has spent a night in police custody after having a scrap in the past, but he will never accept being called a racist and he has since apologised to the victim of his ire and insists that he now knows what he said was completely wrong.
It’s clear that he’s learnt from his mistake and has taken action to avoid similar incidents from occurring having also been on awareness courses too, especially now that he’s in the public eye more so following his achievements with the Foxes.
In turn, he reveals that he has had a bar area and snooker table put in at his house, and along with spending more time with his family, he’s certainly made changes to his life to ensure that he avoids any similarly ugly scenes in the future.